You need to have a fresh and up to date resume ready at all times. This is an essential part of career management. Even if you are thrilled and satisfied at your job, your resume should be current.

It is a bit like a business card. You would never go to a meeting with an old business card, would you?

If you only work on your resume when you feel like your job is not working out, those negative vibes will show through. Updating it when you have just finished a big project or hit a milestone will have a far more positive tone.

Top Five Tips

Use a clear font that’s not too fancy. Fancy fonts get mangled by resume reading software.

Give us a brief idea of what your company does and how big it is. We need to understand the scope and scale of where you did what you did.

Try to keep each role or position to three or four bullet points. If you have been in a position for a long time, break the bullets into categories with subheadings.

Put the year that you graduated. Hiding it does you a disservice. We are going to figure it out anyway.

When you think you are finished, read it backwards. This is the best way I know to find spelling or grammar mistakes.

Keep the current version in a cloud drive (Google docs, Dropbox) so that it’s accessible anytime.

So, get out your resume and get to work. Be prepared for it to take a couple of sessions to whip it into shape. It’s a bit like going to gym. A bit of a pain in the neck, but totally worth it when you are done.